1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to a vertically stacked USB connector which is stable during withdrawal/insertion of a complementary connector from/into the connector.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Universal serial bus (USB) connectors have been arranged side-by-side to save precious input/output (I/O) port space. The side-by-side design is sometimes too wide to meet such a requirement. Therefore, a vertically stacked USB connector is developed to minimize the overall width occupied by the USB connector on a printed circuit board while having the advantage of multi-port connection. Such a vertically stacked USB connector faces two problems to resolve: a complete shielding of the vertically stacked USB connector and stability of the vertically stacked USB connector during mating/unmating with a complementary connector.
Hence, an improved vertically stacked USB connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a vertically stacked USB connector which has a shield capable of more adequately shielding the connector; and
A second object of the present invention is to provide a vertically stacked USB connector which is stable to resist an insertion/withdrawal force of a complementary connector.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, a vertically stacked USB connector in accordance with the present invention includes a housing, a number of terminals secured to the housing, an upper inner shield, a lower inner shield, a front outer shield, and a rear outer shield.
The housing including a dielectric base and a pair of vertically aligned mating boards projecting forwardly from the base. Each inner shield has an enclosing section surrounding the mating boards, a pair of bent sections extending outwardly from the enclosing section, and a pair of flange for securing the inner shields to the base. The lower inner shield forms a supporting pad which abuts against a printed circuit board on which the connector is mounted, for ensuring the connector not to forwardly fall down. The front outer shield has a front wall and a pair of lateral edges extending laterally form the front wall and abutting the bent sections to establish electrical connection between the inner shields and the outer shield. The front wall defines a pair of apertures through which the enclosing sections of the inner shields pass. The rear outer shield engages with the front outer shield, cooperating with the inner shields, to entirely enclose the housing and the terminals for providing a complete shield to the USB connector.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.